SARASOTA, Fla. – The parents of Gabby Petito have released a photo they say proves officers should have taken action during a domestic violence stop involving Petito and her then-fiancé Brian Laundrie.
In the photo, reportedly taken minutes before police stopped the couple, Petito appears to have a bruised eye and red marks on her face.
Petito’s parents say officers ignored their daughter’s injuries and are suing the Moab Police Department in Utah for not intervening to protect her before she was killed by Laundrie in 2021.
The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million in damages.
The lawsuit comes months after Petito’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $3 million.
A lawyer for Petito’s parents said at the time that whatever money was received would go to the Gabby Petito Foundation dedicated to locating missing people and curbing domestic violence.
The lawsuit involving the estates of Petito and Laundrie, filed last May, claimed Laundrie was liable for damages because he caused her death.
A separate lawsuit, still pending in Sarasota, claims Laundrie’s parents wrongly concealed that he confessed to killing Petito before he returned home in September 2021 to Florida from their trip out West in a converted van.
Christopher and Roberta Laundrie denied that claim.
Petito’s disappearance on the trip and the subsequent discovery of her slain body on Sept. 19, 2021 in a Wyoming national park became a national obsession, which continued during the weekslong search for Laundrie in a swampy Florida nature preserve.
His remains were found there in October 2021 and investigators say he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and left a note confessing to Petito’s slaying, according to the FBI.